Kristal Bell, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

Monthly Archives: July 2015

It’s Friday!! Woohoo! I am pretty excited because I don’t have any plans this weekend which means I might get in lots of crafty time! Isn’t it funny how the older we get we look more forward to no plans than lots of plans? 🙂

I have a cute card to share with you today made with the adorable new stencils available in the annual catalog. Are you a stencil user? If not, you should so give it a try. It can really add something extra to your creations. I have used stencils more in my scrapbooking than card making, but I am trying to make it a more common medium for my overall crafting experience.

To make this card I used versamark and a dauber to ink up the stencil. I then removed that and covered the stamped areas with gold embossing powder and heat set it. You can also use spritzer and regular ink to get a different look if that is preferred. The flowers were made using the Pansy and Petite Petals punches. I topped of the flower with the new Metal Rimmed Pearls. Aren’t they pretty? Last,but not least, is the fun Gold Sequin trim. Did you know that this is now also available in Silver, Bermuda Bay and Blushing Bride? I need to get more sequins!

I wanted to make a wedding card because summer always makes me think of weddings. That is because I got married in the summer! My third anniversary is coming up next month! Though this is a wedding card, you can see you could easily turn it into a birthday card or general card by changing the banner sentiment.

I hope your week has started out smoothly. For me, last week and weekend was just a little crazy! We needed to go get some new furniture for our youngest daughter. We decided to get it from Ikea because they had a style she liked and it is reasonably priced. It took us FOREVER to get her old furniture out of the room and the new stuff step and in the room. It is all done now, but needless to say I had no crafty time at all.

Thankfully, I was able to make something quick. I had a goal in mind. I wanted to use a stamp set I have in a slightly different way than one might automatically think of when working with the set. I chose the Build a Birthday stamp set because when you look at that set you automatically either see a cake or large candles. So after some trial and error, I came up with this:

Those little flags are from the Build a Birthday stamp set. I just stamped them all around in a circle to make an interesting stamped element! I added in a sentiment from Amazing Birthday and popped it up with dimensionals. On the left side of the card I used the pretty new Lost Lagoon Striped Cotton Ribbon and some of the striking Silver Metallic Thread. I topped all of it off with a silver button and underneath that is clip from the prior catalog. Though that clip is no longer available, you could use some silver or smokey slate paper and shape that into a banner and it would look nearly the same!

So do you ever try to think up new and different ways to use your stamp sets? If so, please share your ideas with me in the comments! I always love to know how to get more use out of my favorite stamp sets.

I am back from spending a long weekend at a scrapbook retreat! Oh my goodness they are so fun. If you have never been to one, I highly recommend going! It was filled with laughs and relaxation, as well as getting lot of scrapbook pages done!

Now that I am back I thought I would share a little technique I came up with to help use up some of those supplies we have laying around. Who has tons of buttons and washi tape? Who doesn’t, right? Anyway this technique is another great way to get more use out of both those items.

Check out the video:

Think you will try it? Let me know if you do! I would love to hear how it turns out for you.

I am entering this card in the Challenge over at Sunday Stamps. This week the theme is Going Grey and my card is all about Grey!

Today I have some adorable little boxes to share with you! Do you ever need a cute little gift to give to someone? Then this little box is for you!

These sweet boxes can hold all kinds of goodies from candy to jewelry and even a cupcake! The finished box size: 4-1/8″ x 2-1/8″ x 2-5/8″. You need at least a 6×6 size paper to make the box. I really tested that size because I used the Cherry On Top paper to make these and that is a 6×6 paper pack. It JUST fit with no room to spare. So if you have a bigger paper you may want to add at least a 1/2 inch to each end so you won’t have to work so hard to get it in just the right place. I was happy to see I could use this paper to make these because then all the boxes coordinate together which makes this a perfect party gift! The little sentiment on the front is from Amazing Birthday stamp set and it coordinates with the 1 1/4 circle punch.

I have something fun for you today, a video! I finally figured out how to make a video for some of my projects. Now that I know how to do this I might share video’s on how to make cards from time to time. Today’s project is how to color vellum. There are actually a few ways to do this, but I chose to use blender pens and ink pads. Check out the video to learn this fun technique!

Here is a picture of the finished card.

As I was working on this I determined that I seem to have just a little bit of silver embossing powder mixed in with my white somehow. 🙁 So be sure to learn from my mistake and be certain your surface is extra clean before you get out new emobssing powders! 😀

I am back from a glorious and fun vacation in Southern CA. I have a brother who lives there and I try to make the trip once a year. It is so nice to have a free place to stay in such a beautiful and fun area. On this trip we took my step children (2 of them anyway, one was busy at college) because they had never been to CA. I just have to share a few photos from my trip and then I will get back to the crafty fun!

Check out this beautiful view I had while eating dinner at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach CA:

It was the perfect weather to be at the beach. The pacific ocean is generally to cold for me to swim in, but it is lovely to hear the waves and just relax.

Here is a family picture taken of us as the sun was going down:

That is Wes, Dana, My husband Rodney and me! We had just been observing the sea life in the tide pools. Their were crabs and anemones everywhere. It is so fun to enjoy creatures in their natural habitat.

For me, no visit to southern CA is complete without a trip to Disneyland. Would you believe my family didn’t want to go? Me either! They went off and did their own thing while my niece and I enjoyed a day at Disney. Here we are:

Though I have been to Disneyland nearly 15 times ( my brother has lived there for quite some time now…) This visit was a little extra special as they had a 60th Anniversary Special going on. It is hard to believe they have been there for 60 years. If you can get to Disneyland, I highly recommend making the trip. The special performance they are putting on at night is really amazing! Last but not least, Sleeping Beauty’s castle was extra beautiful. They added more sparkle and lights then I have ever seen:

I hope you enjoyed a little snippet of my vacation now on to the crafty fun!

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I often participate in swaps so I can see what other fun stuff people are making and add to my collection of cards made with stamps I don’t already have. I am signed up to make an anniversary card for a swap so I got to work on that. I decided to make something a little clean and simple, but it does have some more intricate coloring.

I think this looks like a pretty classy Anniversary card, right? I used a new set in the current catalog – Timeless Love. I did not have any Happy Anniversary Sentiment stamps so this set was the perfect one to add to my collection. To make this card I did use the Blendabillities to color in the flowers and leaves. Though they are no longer available, you could still color these in with either the aqua painter or the Blender Pens to get the same look. The colors used are Pink Pirouette, Wild Wasabi and one marker from Melon Mambo. Again, you can use those same ink colors with the painter or the blender pens and you should be able to get a similar look. All of the stamps used are from this new set. I did use the new thicker Whisper White card stock as my base for the card and it is lovely. It will be nice to have that available for when I want a white card base.

Now how about the latest stampin’ up deals!

Stampin’ Up is offering some extra special deals up to 60% off! Here are some of the details:

All order types qualify: customer, demonstrator, workshop, and online orders.

Newly added Clearance Rack items will be added and will remain in the Clearance Rack sections while supplies last and will not be removed at the end of the promotion.

Weekly Deals will be offered in limited quantities. Once the quantity for the discounted items has been reached, the items will be removed from Weekly Deals, but they will still be available at retail prices.

Many of the items have limited quantities at the discounted price so if you like something you better get it quick! To see what is available at the extra discount, just click on the banner above and it will take you right to my shopping page. There you can click on the clearance rack to see the goodies. Here is a list of items that definitely have limited quantities:

Week of July 7 – July 14: Limited quantity available at a discounted price:

Item #

Product Name

Available Quantity

139007

Merry Moments 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock Assortment Pack

1,400

139008

Timeless Elegance 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock Assortment Pack

1,100

138315

Kraft Tag A Bag Gift Bags

1,000

138429

Whisper White 3/8″ Stitched Satin Ribbon

1,100

138419

Mossy Meadow 5/8″ Striped Cotton Ribbon

1,100

138428

Crumb Cake 3/8″ Stitched Satin Ribbon

900

127012

Floral Frames Collection Framelits Dies

2,000

134571

Night Of Navy 1/2″ Seam Binding Ribbon

1,500

137416

Ornate Tag Topper Punch

5,000

133724

Hamburger Box Bigz Xl Die

3,000

137415

Confetti Hearts Border Punch

3,500

Here are the weekly deals too!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to get your Stampin’ Up discount goodies before they are gone!